Family of Australia's youngest terror concern, 12, 'didn't know he was on a watch list until they saw it on television'

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The family of a 12-year-old boy who has been dubbed the youngest terror suspect in Australia has reportedly faced increased attention and pressure as police monitor him. 

When talking to Fairfax Media, the family of the boy revealed their stress at learning he was a concern from a television news broadcast. 

At the same time, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin says he is 'shocked' by the age of the boy and those who pose a terror threat have become younger, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Security agencies are monitoring a 12-year-old boy in relation to suspected terrorist activity, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin says

The boy is one of more than a dozen persons of interest listed on a federal court order imposed on Sydney terrorism suspect Ahmad Saiyer Naizmand earlier this year

The 12-year-old western Sydney boy - who cannot be identified - was included as a terrorism concern after a court in the city made an order banning a 20-year-old terror suspect from speaking to others.

It prohibits terrorism suspect Ahmad Saiyer Naizmand from communicating with 18 males, including the 12-year-old and an 18-year-old currently held in relation to the death of NSW Police employee Curtis Cheng.

The boy was revealed in a list when three others included in it were arrested following the Parramatta shooting in early October, during which Farhad Jabar, 15, killed police accountant Curtis Cheng.

The 12-year-old is being watched by police because he thought is part of a group of extremists who may have helped 15-year-old Farhad Jabar (pictured) shoot dead a NSW police employee in Parramatta on October 2

Pictured is Curtis Cheng - a 17-year veteran police accountant who was shot dead leaving work on October 2

Justice Minister Michael Keenan said it was a terrible situation.

'Unfortunately there is a barbaric terrorist organisation in the Middle East that are reaching out through social media to our young people,' he told Nine Network.'We have seen this trend of them reaching out to people in their 20s, then their late teens.

'Now we find people in their early teens and the government is very shocked about these matters.'

Mr Keenan declined to say how many children in Australia under the age of 14 were on watchlists. 

The mother of the 12-year-old questioned the deradicalisation methods of authorities and even planned to launch legal action to have her son taken off the list. 

Talking to the Sydney Morning Herald, she questioned why authorities had not talked to the 'one person who would do anything to make sure he's not being harmed'. 

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